Slammed for 'warehousing' children in nursing homes, state pitches changes

Florida’s
Agency for Health Care Administration has launched an “enhanced care” program
in response to scathing criticism about the treatment of hundreds of disabled
children who are kept in nursing homes.

The “Enhanced Care Coordination” program will enlist
at least 28 nurse care coordinators throughout the state to work with families
of disabled children and the nursing homes where they are being treated.

“The program is designed to help empower parents,
to help them and to educate them and to help them personalize the experience
that they have,” said AHCA director Liz Dudek on Thursday, adding that the
nurse care coordinators will be able to help some families bring disabled children
home from nursing homes.

But even with the new measures, the agency and the
state of Florida
continue to be locked in a heated battle with the federal government, which
released a damning report last year accusing the state of warehousing disabled
children in nursing homes with isolated and unhealthy conditions.

Dudek said she visited the six facilities
where children are being treated this week and found a very different scene than the one
painted in the grim federal report, which documented isolated children
spending years in nursing homes with very little education or social
stimulation.

“I can tell you that what I found was way better
than I even thought I would find,” said Dudek, “Children had multidisciplinary
programs ongoing, the school was very involved it was clear the [Children’s
Multidisciplinary Assessment Team] process was working, and there were parents
involved and the Department of Children and Families involved.”

Dudek, who toured a South Florida
nursing facility this week, later added: “I have to wonder what the DOJ was
looking at when they went through there and I would invite any of you to go to
any of those facilities because I certainly did not see what they were seeing.”

Dudek said there were two or three
children in each of the six facilities that state officials grew attached to and "wanted to take home," a statement that AHCA spokesperson clarified was a personal aside and not a medical determination.
There are at least 221 disabled children across the state being treated in
nursing facilities.

Dudek said children are already coming out of the
nursing homes, but the addition of enhanced nurse care coordinators will help
further that process.

Kathy McCallister, Chair of the Florida Development
Disabilities Council, said the new program was an encouraging sign that more children
will be transitioning from nursing home care into household care.

“The Florida Development Disabilities Council believes that
children, even those with medically complex conditions, should be living with
their families or in a home-like environment,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which threatened a lawsuit over
Florida’s
care practices, continues to be at odds with the state over the care program.

Dudek said agency officials speak with officials at the
federal government about once a month, but the relationship has been a
difficult one.

“Our intent is to work with the federal government, and, at
this point, to convince them – maybe we need to go back into the facilities
with them and see if they still have the concerns that they allege,” she said,
reiterating the agency’s long-held position that it is not breaking any laws. “It’s
been very very difficult, because they’ve given us no specifics.”